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8 Bit Christmas by Kevin Jakubowski

Timmy Kleen is the neighborhood rich kid. He gets what he wants and one day for his birthday he strikes kid gold, the newest thing around, a Nintendo Entertainment system.

It’s the late 80’s and Jack Doyle is 9 and his jaw drops, along with most of the neighborhood boys, when he sees what Timmy got for his birthday. Timmy announces that on Saturday mornings 10 boys, only 10, will be picked to spend the day with him playing with his new Nintendo. So starts the jockeying for prime positions in Timmy’s lineup.

For those who haven’t made the cut each Saturday, the rest would meet at the local trading card store to buy and barter baseball cards, the staple of most boys childhood. Even this activity pales to the quest to get a Nintendo of their own. A rumor goes around that the cub scout who sells the most Christmas wreaths will win a coveted game system. Mayhem ensues as each boy tries every trick in the book to win that prize.

It all seems so close and with Christmas coming every boy is praying and begging Santa for a system of their own under the tree until something happens and parents rally to ban the sale of the gaming system and Jack, who had been obsessing about getting one, tries everything to get one. He even enlists his friends to sell their cards, pool the money together and buy one out of town.

I really enjoyed this book, it brought back so many childhood memories about trying to get THE must have toy of the year and being jealous of those who have IT. For me it was an Atari. My little cousin would get all the newest electronic stuff and I wanted that Atari so bad I could taste it! This is a great read for Christmas!